iDIDJ Australia Didgeridoo Cultural Hub

Hi Guys,

last few days something came to my mind and I became curious.

What part of the Top End did our native fellow friends play the long Yidaki or Mago? I´ve seen old ones at Andrew Langfords place and they were somewhat 6 foot or more. They are thin & long. Apparently some which were used could reach up to 3 meters, I was told.

What wood would they have used? What style would they have played and would their be any sound-recordings?

Cheers for input
Gordon

It sounds like you should go to the old IDIDJ site and read about the different "regions" of didj making/playing...click here:http://www.ididj.com.au/exhibitions/index.html

Briefly, the longer didjeridus you speak of are primarily out of Northeast Arnhemland and Groote Eyelandt. The instruments there are on average 5 to 6 feet in length. Instruments tend to shorten as you travel west, although the North Central Arnhemland area produces mago called "Giyanggiyang" or wuyimbal which tend to be very large and in deep keys. I've heard historical accounts of didjeridu from Cape York which were called "Yiki-yiki" and were supposedly 7-9 feet long, but these remain obscure. There is a wealth of information if you dig around. Manikay.com has a lot of recordings which you can listen to via RealPlayer...and they also have a nice library of articles available.

Its a bit hard to know without seeing those pieces, very long didgeridoos can mean different things, sometimes they're just normal long didges on the one hand, on the other hand they can represent the sacred-secret where they are no longer called didgeridoos but something else, but because of the sacred-secret nature of them I can't say much else. So it really depends on the individual piece, if you have pics you can upload them here.

G

Mhm haven´t got any pics at the moment, will try and get hold of some. There are in Andrew Langfords private collection but will ask him. Thx for the first input. Was only curious. Thx Guan I understand, didn´t know they would have such a unique nature.